The invention is directed to an electrophotographic imaging system and, more particularly, to such a system wherein a laminated cleaning blade is employed to clean residual marking material from a surface or to meter a liquid material from a supply surface.
The formation and development of images on an imaging member of photoconductive materials by electrostatic means is well known. The best known of the commercial processes, more commonly known as xerography, involves forming an electrostatic latent image on the imaging layer of an imaging member by first uniformly electrostatically charging the surface of the imaging layer in the dark and then exposing this electrostatically charged surface to a light and shadow image. The light struck areas of the imaging layer are thus rendered relatively conductive and the electrostatic charge selectively dissipated in these irradiated areas. After the photoconductor is exposed, the latent electrostatic image on this image bearing surface is rendered visible by development with a finely divided colored electroscopic powder material, known in the art as "toner". This toner will be principally attracted to those areas on the image bearing surface having a relative polarity opposite to the charge on the toner and thus form a visible powder image. The developed image can then be read or permanently affixed to the photoconductor in the event that the imaging layer is not to be reused. This latter practice is usually followed with respect to the binder type photoconductive films where the photoconductive insulating layer is also an integral part of the finished copy.
In so-called "plain paper" copying systems, the latent image can be developed on the imaging surface of a reusable photoconductor or transferred to another surface, such as a sheet of paper, and thereafter developed. When the latent image is developed on the imaging surface of a reusable photoconductor, the developed image is subsequently transferred to another substrate and then permanently affixed thereto. Any one of a variety of well-known techniques can be used to permanently affix the toner image to the transfer sheet, including overcoating with transparent films and solvent or thermal fusion of the toner particles to the supportive substrate.
After visible image is transferred to the receiver member typically there remains some residual marking material on the photoreceptor surface. The residual marking material must be removed from the photoreceptor surface prior to the formation of each subsequent reproduction so as not to interfere with the formation thereof.